Holy cow this one was rough. I went in all “I’m totally doing this all loose and alla prima” and… I hit a wall. I just went back to my representational process and I guess that’s just what I do. It was so large and so complicated that it really should have been done in glazes. Or I should have been throwing paint at the canvas. Either way – it’s done.

Looking at it now, I like it for its pulp qualities. The vibrancy of the green and the blue-gray remind me of what I was trying to do about five years ago when I first started the derby paintings. If it were more simple I think it could have been a pulp cover from ages past. So I’m calling this one “Pulp Derby” all official-like.

Pulp Derby. 24×18. Oil on canvas board.

I worried a little less about time and more about the art (see last post). However I still just stopped and said “done”. Oh sure – there’s more I could do here. There were more shapes that needed to be defined. The wrinkles needed more depth and clarity. But there it is.

My goal is to do two more in-depth works some time soon. I think I need to get a commission out of the way first.

16×18 oil on canvas

I knocked out a work. And that’s just it – a work, just to get me back in the swing of things.

The more I look at other artists, the ones that I admire, the more I realize that they work both smaller, more quickly and with more dedication than I do. I spend so much time struggling with the process that it becomes tiresome and I just say “fuck it – I’m done just because I don’t know when I’d ever be able to really finish this”.

I need to stop doing that. Stop worrying about time and start worrying about the art.

Untitled 03 – January 2015 – 16×18 – Oil on Canvas

I started one of my very few commissions this month. A co-worker asked me to do a painting of SpongeBob for his daughter. He didn’t want anything fancy but I’d be damned if I wasn’t going to do something serious. So far it’s going well.

I thought this one would go quickly, but in the end, no sir – it did not. Maybe it was the scale and maybe it was some of the slight tone areas, but I couldn’t quite pull it off.

There were some troubles with the acrylics. Keeping the paint wet enough on canvas as well as on the palette for subtle blending was difficult and everything started to feel flat. In the end I resorted to a lot of dry brushing, smearing with the thumb and mixing right on the canvas. That seemed to work ok, but my technique is very obvious when you get up close. I’d rather someone wonder how I did something instead of being so transparent.

Enh. But here you go. I like the style and I think I may try a few more like this.

Blocked. 30"x20" Acrylic on Canvas Board. September, 2011.